Portland Event - Holiday Ale Festival

This Wednesday, November 28th, marks the start of the 17th annual Ale Festival in Portland, Oregon. This beer festival is in the heart of Portland's downtown area, at Pioneer Courthouse Square (perfect for taking public transportation).

The Ale Festival begins at noon on Wednesday (anybody want to blow work off early with me?), and runs through Sunday, December 2nd (make sure you check out the Sunday Beer Brunch - best beer brunch ever!). One thing that's awesome about it - you get FREE admission everyday once you pay for the wristband. In other words, drop by everyday, and taste the new and limited releases by some of your favorite brewers, including: Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg, North Coast Brewing, Hair of the Dog Brewing, Deschutes, and Bear Rupublic Brewing Co., just to name a few.

Come on out and support your local community of Brewers. While doing so, you are also supporting the Children's Cancer Association, which the Holiday Ale Festival is a proud supporter. For more information about this Portland beer event, you can download the Holiday Ale Festival brochure:

Prost!

Your Monday Beer Links

Beer Events

Thank goodness it's finally June. Summer and beer go hand in hand, as do summer seasonal beers (which we will be talking about so stay tuned). I found this list of beer events HERE which gives you an idea as to how widely celebrated beer is. Below are just a few of the events of the week.

 
Portland Beer Week is here - woot! If you live in the Portland, Oregon area, there is a lot to celebrate when it comes to beer. So why not have an entire week dedicate to micro brewed beer, pdx style? Thursday, June 7th kicks off the week - from pdxbeerweek.com :

Portland Beer Week kicks off with the first tapping of the official 2012 beer, India Red Lager with limited edition draft and bottles with a vip schwag bag purchase from 6-10pm at Spirit of 77. Joins us for the festivities with tons of free prizes and beers from Deschutes, Hopworks, Double Mountain, Firestone Walker, Laurelwood, Widmer Brothers and more. More than 16 brewers will be on hand and competing in a pop-a-shot tourney that you can enter into, fill out a bracket and win prizes all MC'd by the Beer Goddess herself Lisa Morrison.

Philly Beer Week may have already started, but there is still plenty to do, 7 more days of events, in fact. As their website states:

Philly Beer Week is a 10-day celebration of the Best Beer-Drinking City in America.

Established in 2008, it’s the largest beer celebration of its kind in America, featuring hundreds of festivals, dinners, tours, pub crawls, tastings and meet-the-brewer nights to area bars, restaurants and other locations throughout Greater Philadelphia.\

Perhaps a good week to celebrate beer, considering Pennsylvania's struggles with privatizing liquor sales?

Other Beer Links

Are you a member of the Rare Beer Club? If so, you are lucky enough to taste this month's selection of beer, The Flanders Fred from Hair of the Dog Brewery and Belgian's De Proef Brouwerij. As per their website:

The 2012 De Proef collaboration is again a new approach within the program, marking the first "blended beer” of the series—and what a blend it is. The famous “Fred”, fist brewed by Founder/Owner/Brewer Alan Sprints at his Oregon-based Hair of the Dog Brewing Company in the 1990s, in honor of beer writer and historian Fred Eckhardt (currently 86 and still drinkin’, God bless the man!), was collaboratively brewed at De Proef by Alan and Dirk Naudts, then blended with authentic Flemish lambic supplied by the Bockor Brewery.

Perhaps a membership for Dad for father's day is your "inside" way to get a taste of this delicious sounding beer?

NPR reports that Craft Beer Brewers are doing well, even with their small share of the market.

Finally, I would like to report, perhaps a bit late to be "breaking news," that Beer Pong may go pro. Seriously. You'll have to read the story to believe me. Do it here!

PROST!